


nearby

by miss_belivet



Series: the wonder poison archive [3]
Category: Wonder Woman (2017), Wonder Woman - All Media Types
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Post-Movie(s), Themyscira, World War I
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-08 20:29:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11089338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_belivet/pseuds/miss_belivet
Summary: Years pass, and Diana stays near Isabel.





	nearby

The next time they meet, there are bars are between them.

Isabel Maru is clothed in the same drab uniform as every other inmate in the women's prison. Diana doesn't know how she was apprehended, but she feels a pang of pity for the woman. Her face is uncovered, but her hair is styled and her collar is flipped up to hide her gaping scar. The lower left half of her face is twisted into a permanent grimace, but Isabel's eyes are only wary and sad.

Diana wonders how much influence Ares truly had in creating _Doctor Poison_.

But she remembers the dancing in Veld and hardens her heart. Isabel Maru helped kill thousands, if not millions, of people.

xXx

Isabel gets off easily. Most incriminating evidence was burned by weapons of her own design, and the journal Steve stole from her was hidden or destroyed by Ares. During the Leipzig War Crimes Trials, she is found not guilty based on tangential evidence and eyewitness statements from compromised parties. Diana offered to use the powers of Hestia's lasso for all of the trials, but the potential participation of a woman—even an Amazon—as an official in a court of law was dismissed quietly. Her earlier interrogation is taken into account on Themyscira, but no other nation will admit it into evidence.

Diana follows the news in the papers. Other officers, male officers, charged with far greater crimes are also found innocent, but none of the articles about them talk about _wayward girls_ or _unlovable scarring_ like Isabel's do. Either way, the sting of injustice plagues Diana, and it only grows stronger when she spends six months in Germany in 1923.

She's surprised to find Dr. Maru filling prescriptions in a clinic near Veld in 1924, so she takes the chemist to get coffee on her next break.The cloth surgical mask she wore in the clinic gives way to a leather one, but it's simple design that wraps around the back of her head and leaves her nose uncovered. _War injuries,_ she explains, _people here always believe it's a war injury._  

With the lasso wrapped around her wrist, Isabel admits that she thinks of poisoning patients, almost _has,_ but has not harmed anyone since the war.  _Well,_ she amends when the lasso heats up, _I did administer one lethal dose of morphine, but the patient was terminally ill, suffering_ _._

_Did you enjoy it?_

Isabel is silent, but she nods eventually.

xXx

After that, Diana stays near Isabel. She goes where she is needed, but she will always return to a village not far from whichever one Isabel has chosen recently. That's another thing she learns: Isabel Maru doesn't stay in one place for very long. They meet for coffee with increasing regularity, mostly because they are often the only familiar face the other knows.

Diana also worries, but that happens less often than it probably should.

 _It's easy to move. People don't trust an ugly woman, and they don't like to pay people they can't trust,_ Isabel confides in a small cafe near Halifax in 1927. _With good reason, but even when they don't recognize me... It's the masks_.

It's the most personal thing she has said to Diana in three years. Diana has never thought of her as ugly; many of her sisters have scars from an uprising before her time. Attractive, even, if only Isabel weren't a mass murderer.

_How did you—_

_Testing my weapons. How did you think?_ Isabel waves Diana off with typical German brusqueness. She finishes her drink and leaves without a goodbye.

xXx

They are near Boston in 1929 when the stock market crashes. It doesn't effect Diana very much; she has to deal with more petty crimes and keeps a close eye on the situation in Germany, but her living situation goes unchanged.

She doesn't notice that Isabel disappears until she finds her in a breadline after dealing with a nearby bank robbery in 1931. She's skinnier and more careworn. Her mask is patched and roughly mended in places, as are her clothes.

_I told you. People don't like to pay women. Not masked, German women. Especially in America._

Diana considers this for a moment. She doesn't know how to define her relationship with Isabel; at most, they are fairly reserved friends. Still, after thirteen years of knowing her and seven years of coffee check-ins, she isn't untouched by the state she finds Isabel in. Mass murderer she may be, but Ares played some part in making her one and Isabel has worked relatively peaceful jobs for the past decade.

_Meet me here tomorrow._

xXx

When they arrive at Themyscira, Isabel is pale. They are greeted, as Diana always is, by a battalion of Amazonian warriors, and Isabel's knees shake when they dock. 

_Calm yourself. You spent three years in prison waiting for trial and eight free. Do you think we would sentence you now?_

The warriors are wary of Isabel in return, but Hippolyta introduces her to the sisterhood and offers her a place on the island. It's exceedingly unusual, but Isabel Maru comes with Diana's personal recommendation, despite her reputation amongst the Amazons. If anything happens, Diana will be held responsible as much as Isabel is.

Diana shows Isabel to her old quarters and spends the weekend making sure she is settled.

xXx

When she returns to Themyscira eight months later, Isabel's mask has been replaced by a thin scarf, and she works in one of the infirmaries. Her station is littered with bits of paper weighed down by a mortar and pestle, jars of herbs, and the occasional knife.

_She is strange, but helpful. She can mix medicines, but she is best at putting down the wounded animals._

_Strange,_ Diana knows, is code for _a rude woman from the world of man._

Isabel is as blunt and cool as ever, but she doesn't protest when Diana shares her quarters, though she does fall asleep with the blanket carefully drawn up over her face.

 _Do you still think about poisoning innocents?_ Diana asks in the morning.

 _Yes,_ Isabel says, her voice thick with sleep. _But I am not happy when I do_.

It is and isn't enough for Diana.

xXx

Years pass. Diana comes and goes from Themyscira, and Isabel doesn't seem to age on the island anyway. The Amazons never give Isabel a weapon, but Diana still manages to get her into the old training grounds three years after they first arrive, and she pulls Isabel down onto the grass and kisses her under the moon. Isabel pushes, turns her unscarred cheek, but Diana holds fast.

_Do you want this?_

_Do you?_

Diana just lifts her eyebrows as she always does when faced with a simple challenge. _That is not an answer_.

Years pass, and Diana stays near Isabel.


End file.
